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Friday, May 4, 2012

Eat Like Jack For a Day!

National Eosinophilic Awareness Week is May 13th-19th this year! I have challenged my friends and family to try to eat like Jack for just one day (May 14th), to get a glimpse into what will likely be a life long struggle for Jack, and to help raise awareness, compassion, and understanding for all those individuals affected by Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders (EGIDs). Scroll to the bottom of this page to learn more about EGIDs.

Now it's not enough to just avoid milk, eggs, wheat, soy, rice, oats, apples, coconut, beef, pork, and chicken. Nope, You also have to read labels. That favorite pasta sauce of yours? I can almost guarantee it has soy in it. Mmmm, turkey bratwurst! But wait... it's wrapped in pork casing. Alright then, well I'll just have Corn Pops in Almond Milk....ah, but Corn Pops are manufactured on equipment with items containing wheat, milk, and soy and some almond and hemp milks contains rice syrup. By the way, anything containing 'vegetable' oil almost surely contains soy. What the heck, WHAT CAN YOU EAT?!
Well without having everyone go out to specialty stores and buy ingredients they probably will never use again (like Daiya Cheese, Nutritional Yeast Flakes, or Wheat Free bread), here's a list of things to get you started. Every time you think "There's nothing to eat!" remember that for you, it's just today. For people with EGIDs, this feeling never really goes away.

I will add more as I think of things that are available at a typical grocery store, and you can always browse around this blog to find ideas. You can also search for vegan, wheat, rice, oat and soy free recipes online if you are feeling adventurous! (You don't have to eat vegan, you can eat turkey or fish, but if it's vegan you can be sure it also doesn't contain egg or milk or hidden meat by products). Thank you SO MUCH for participating!!!

Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders are rare allergic diseases in which an individuals immune system attacks specific parts of the digestive tract in reaction to food proteins. A difficult part about EGIDs is that those affected can literally be allergic to anything, and generally children affected by EGIDs have multiple allergies. Eosinophils are white blood cells that usually help your body fight infection. In typical food allergies, the body mistakes certain food proteins for harmful intruders and attacks them. This causes runny noses, itchy eyes, swelling of tongue and lips, and even breathing trouble. But with EGIDs, the attacks occur, not systemically throughout the body, but in one specific place. Each of the diseases are named after the area affected:

Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE)- the esophagusEosinophilic Gastritis (EG)- the stomachEosinophilic Enteritis (EE)- the small intestineEosinophilic Colitis (EC)- the large intestine

The effect of having large numbers of eosinophils present is chronic inflammation, pain, and eventual scarring and atrophy of healthy tissue. When not aggressively treated, EGIDs can lead to malnutrition, growth restriction, and in some cases eventual loss of ability to eat by mouth.

Treatment for EGIDs includes swallowed topical steroids, allergy and reflux medications, avoidance diet (avoiding the specific things you are allergic to. It is not rare for kids to have only 1 or 2 'safe' foods), elemental diet (removing all foods and relying soley on a special formula for nutrition), NG and G tubes (tubes that put liquid foods directly into your stomach or intestines), as well as routine eondoscopies and biopsies done under general anesthesia which are invasive and generally no fun.

4 comments:

I went shopping today and got some stuff to eat on Monday. I normally eat vegan, so this isn't a big change for me, except I usually drink a shake that has brown rice protein, so I'll have to skip that on Monday for a salad. :)